Time aware

If you do a crime in Texas and it gets you the death penalty; chances are you going to die. Ron White the comedian once said, that in Texas they aren’t doing away with the death penalty, “They are putting in an express lane!”

The statistics prove him to be pretty right. Since the death penalty was brought back in 1973, Texas leads the states in carrying out the sentence. To date 402 person have had their lives terminated with a lethal injection for crimes deemed worthy of such punishment. It would have been 403, this past week had the governor not stopped and listened, to recommendations of the state parole board.

If you get the idea the Governor of Texas rarely commutes a sentence, you would be right. I remember the last governor of Texas getting what I thought a bit carried away with the process, but from what I can see, he was just caught up in the way the system is suppose to work.

So why is Texas, “ground zero,” for capital punishment? Check it out here. It appears the system is set up to work that way. In this particular case, the defendant was a getaway car driver involved in a murder. The merits of the case had the State Parole board a bit concerned. They recommended the governor commute the sentence. Governors seldom do, but this time they did. The outrage that has been raised by the victim’s family and others seem to say the Governor bowed to political pressure.

I did some checking, and Texas has always lead the states in executions. Before 1963 their total was over 650. And since the reinstalled of the procedure they are way out in the lead again. Now you have to wonder, do people commit a lot of bad crimes there? Is it a problem of illegal aliens? What gives, and why this post on Texas and lethal injections; Geo? Are you moving?

For one reason and one reason only; because what you do as a voter is so important in so many ways. Apathy toward what is going to be happening politically over the next year is going to stellar. Even those of us who keep abreast of what it all means are going to be ready to throw our hands up in the air and walk away from the process. But we can’t do that. We have an old saying in the environmental movement, “the people united, can never be divided!” While I don’t agree with the politics that set up the Texas system I can assure you I would be fighting to change them. And the only way to change them is to be supporting of and part of the political process. Unless you are, well you can see what you get!